The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption

Junk information is as toxic as junk food. As a group, Americans are fat. Our
diets are out of control: we eat too much and, Clay Johnson explains, we take in
too much in other ways. This book is his attempt to convince you of that and to
make recommendations for how to curb our intake.

Johnson examines obesity and our cravings for fat, salt, and sugar, and says
that our information choices lead us down the same paths: we look for opinions,
facts, and treatments that agree with what we already believe. It makes us feel
good to have affirmation. Over time, we avoid topics and opinions very different
from our own, or we tend to approach them only to argue, to reinforce our
current and long-held positions. This is called “confirmation bias.” Its danger
is that we rarely get exposed to anything new, and rarely revise our positions.
“It’s too high of a cognitive and ego burden to surround ourselves with people
that we disagree with,” Johnson writes.

Search Engine Optimization

Johnson’s look at news organizations includes an explanation of how headlines
are crafted. Most online sites are forced to construct headlines that will get
you to click on them, regardless of their relationship to the story content. We
call this search engine optimization (SEO)—I work for a daily newspaper with an
online component—and its purpose is to get you to click on stories so that we
can show our advertisers that people are seeing their ads. All online news
organizations participate in this SEO effort to varying degrees.

Johnson talks about the spectrum of TV news stretching from Fox to CNN to MSNBC,
explaining how they got to their political positions and why making the news
choices they do works for them.

After he sets up the problem, Johnson provides strategies for how to change our
information diet. The strategies require a sense of humor and willpower. I was
amused that one of the tactics for sharing the ideas in the book was to join a
local online group, which would be just one more way to be online, but then he
encourages us to meet face-to-face, so I got it. But still…

Pragmatism

I recognized my favorite branch of philosophy near the end of the book: “Most of
us give too much weight to information that’s not actionable and relevant to our
daily lives,” Johnson states. In this section, Johnson is encouraging us to
forego international news for local news. I was reminded of John Dewey’s and
William James’ brand of thinking called pragmatism—the only uniquely American
contribution to philosophy. The idea is that we don’t waste energy working out
how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, unless it affects our daily
lives in some way. Spend energy only on things that matter. On this, I agree
with Johnson one hundred percent.

I got bogged down toward the end of the book when he got political, as will many
non-American readers. He is clear about his background in politics, so this is
not a surprise, nor is it inappropriate. I admire that he makes a call to
action, and many readers will appreciate the routes he suggests to make things
better.

But I think most of the point of fixing this is just about each of us choosing
to turn off the darn computer/phone/mobile device more often. To be clear, I am
also reading a book about how we think about food, which advocates mindful
eating—basically, slowing down and appreciating the moment we’re in, rather than
rushing to get to the next, better one. The ideas in this book (Savor: Mindful
Eating, Mindful Life by Thich Nhat
Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung) will fit with the modifications of both food and
information diets.

Recommendations

The Information Diet is a good introduction to the idea of turning off the
noise, but it can go further in future editions.

I think this book would have been more effective with a few more strategies for
changing our information diets. Johnson encourages readers to visit his Web site
for an ongoing discussion, and the blog and forums do indeed have more ideas. But again, I am
faced with the dilemma of spending more time online to find out how not to spend
so much time online.

Dr. Andrew Weil recommended news fasts years ago. Even though I work at a daily
paper, I have been on such a fast for at least 20 years, spending almost no time
on TV news except for very rare events. There is a desperation about television;
TV producers they want you not to change the channel. That makes it hard to
take for some of us. I suggest trying a one-day news fast and then expanding it,
is my suggestion. Johnson suggests ditching cable altogether, which I saluted,
though I won’t be going down that path just yet. A friend of mine recently moved
and didn’t buy cable TV, and he’s thrilled with his newfound savings in money
and time. He’s discovering several great TV shows on disc a few years after
they’ve aired, and he’s enjoying himself far more than before.